Fizz Creations has spent the past four years building its U.S. business across novelty gifts, games, gadgets, and lighting, with Digital Games emerging as one of the company’s fastest-growing categories. From PAC-MAN and Tetris to The Grinch and an expanding Hasbro lineup, the company is pairing familiar brands with portable formats designed to reach gamers across generations. The Toy Book spoke with Jill Kimbrough, Director of Sales, USA, at Fizz Creations, about the category strategy and what comes next.
The Toy Book (TB): For readers just discovering Fizz Creations, can you introduce the company and tell us about your role?
Jill Kimbrough (JK): I have the very fun job of bringing some seriously nostalgic — and seriously fun — products to the U.S. market!
Fizz has been creating innovative consumer products for more than 15 years and has grown into a global business with teams across the U.K., U.S., Europe, and Hong Kong, working with some of the world’s leading retailers and licensing partners.
Over the past four years, we’ve built the U.S. business from the ground up, and one of the biggest areas of that growth has been Digital Games. What started with iconic brands like PAC-MAN and Tetris has grown into a much broader, multi-brand category spanning different formats, price points, and generations.
Innovation has always been at the heart of Fizz, but Digital Games has become one of our fastest-growing strategic categories, and we’re just getting started.
TB: Why has Digital Games become such an important focus for Fizz?
JK: We see Digital Games as much more than a trend — we see them as a long-term opportunity.
Consumers are looking for products that combine familiar brands with fresh experiences. Whether it’s an arcade favorite they grew up playing or a classic game they’ve loved for years, there’s a real appeal in rediscovering those experiences in a new format and sharing them with a new generation.
At the same time, Digital Games has an incredibly broad audience. The category resonates with lifelong gamers, kidults, families, and younger consumers discovering these brands for the very first time.
That combination of nostalgia, innovation, and multigenerational appeal is exactly why we believe Digital Games has such strong long-term potential and is an important part of Fizz’s growth strategy.
TB: What makes Digital Games such a compelling opportunity for retailers?
JK: Retailers are always looking for categories that combine recognizable brands, proven consumer demand, and strong opportunities for repeat purchases, and that’s exactly how we’ve approached Digital Games.
Rather than creating one or two standalone products, we’ve built a growing assortment across multiple brands and formats that work together on the shelf. This allows retailers to create a destination that drives collecting, gifting, and impulse purchases while giving consumers new reasons to come back year-round.
For us, it’s not about simply adding another SKU. It’s about helping retailers build a category, create a destination, and tell a bigger story with products that can bring consumers back again and again.
TB: Fizz now offers Digital Games across several formats. Why was building that range important?
JK: Our consumers span generations, and they don’t all play the same way, so we didn’t want to build a one-format business. We wanted to create a portfolio that meets consumers where they are, whether they’re looking for an impulse purchase, a collectible, a gift, or a more immersive gaming experience.
Today, our collection includes keychain games, gaming watches, handhelds, desktop arcades, and plug-and-play versions. Each format offers a different way to experience iconic gameplay while staying true to what made those games special in the first place.
We also wanted to offer a wide range of price points because there should be an entry point for everyone. From affordable impulse and collectible items to higher-priced gaming experiences and gifts, our assortment gives retailers the flexibility to reach different consumers, budgets, and shopping occasions, all within one cohesive Digital Games category.
TB: Your lineup now extends beyond arcade gaming, with licensed brands such as The Grinch and the new Hasbro collection. How does that expansion fit into Fizz’s strategy?
JK: Our goal has never been to become a retro gaming company. Our ambition is to become a leader in Digital Games by bringing iconic brands into engaging, accessible digital play experiences.
We started with iconic games like PAC-MAN and Tetris, then expanded into additional legendary arcade licenses, including Asteroids, Missile Command, and Commando. The success of those products gave us the confidence to look beyond retro gaming and explore how we could bring other beloved brands into the Digital Games space.
This holiday season, we’re bringing The Grinch into the Digital Games category with a curated range spanning Keyring Arcades, Color Handhelds, and Plug & Play. At the LA Fall Toy Previews, we’ll build on that momentum with the debut of our Hasbro Classic LCD Games collection, featuring timeless favorites including Monopoly, Scrabble, Operation, Connect 4, Yahtzee, and Battleship.
These are brands that generations of consumers already know and love, now reimagined in fun, portable digital formats. That’s really the opportunity for us — taking iconic IP and creating new ways for consumers to experience brands they already have an emotional connection with.
TB: What response have you heard from retailers as the category has grown?
JK: The response has been fantastic, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to see how far we’ve come. Retailers’ response has been a huge part of that journey.
There’s something incredibly powerful about seeing someone pick up a digital game and, in an instant, have their childhood come back to life. That emotional connection is a big part of what makes the category so special, but what’s really exciting is that retailers are seeing that there’s much more to the opportunity than any one successful product or license.
They’re seeing Fizz make a long-term investment in Digital Games with recognizable brands, multiple formats, accessible price points, and a growing roadmap of new licenses and experiences. That gives buyers confidence that they’re not just buying a product; they’re investing in a category with real momentum and plenty of room to grow.
TB: How important are licensing partnerships to Fizz’s growth strategy?
JK: Licensing partnerships are a huge part of our growth strategy. There’s something incredibly powerful about taking a brand that consumers already know and love and giving them a completely new way to experience it.
Our job is to respect what makes each brand special while finding ways to translate that into digital play experiences that feel authentic, accessible, and genuinely fun.
We’re constantly asking ourselves, “How can we take this iconic brand and make it exciting in a digital format?” That’s what makes licensing so exciting for us. We’re fortunate to work with licensors who share that vision, and we see a huge opportunity to help established brands reach consumers in fresh, unexpected ways.
TB: Looking ahead, what’s next for Fizz Creations and its Digital Games business?
JK: We’re just getting started, and that’s the most exciting part!
Digital Games will remain one of our biggest areas of investment, and we’re continuing to build the category with new brands, new formats, new price points, and plenty of new ideas that we think will surprise and delight consumers.
But for us, it’s bigger than launching great products. We’re focused on building a long-term, scalable category that creates exciting opportunities for retailers, consumers, and our licensing partners.
When I look at what we’ve accomplished in the past four years and at what’s coming next, I believe the best is still ahead.
If you’re attending LA Toy Previews, please come see us. We’d love to give you a sneak peek at where our Digital Games are heading next!
Visit Fizz Creations’ LA Showroom, located at 1960 on Grand, Suite 810, El Segundo, CA. You can reach out to Jill via email: Jill.Kimbrough@fizzcreations.com
Stay on the Pulse of Play!
This feature is a digital companion to The Toy Book‘s 2026 Fall Toy & Licensing Preview Issue. Read the full issue here!
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